In the realm of music storage and playback using personal computers (PCs), the term “playlist” was adopted by various media player software programs intended to organize and control music on a PC. Such music playlists may be defined, stored, and selected to run either in sequence or, if a random playlist function is selected, in a random order.
On video hosting service websites, users can make playlists of selected videos from themselves or other users.
US Patent Application Publication 2005-0278761 of Thomas L. Gonder et al. discloses playlist menu navigation, wherein a method of operating a communications system includes receiving a request for establishment of a session from a terminal, establishing the session with the terminal, and providing at least one navigation video segment to the terminal, via the session. The communications system may be a source of programming, such as a cable system, and the terminal may be a set-top terminal coupled to a display device. The navigation video segment may be used by the terminal to create selection menus to be displayed for user navigation. The video segments may be rich media video segments. A playlist may be generated comprising an indexed listing of a plurality of available video segments. The playlist may facilitate retrieval of video segments requested by a terminal.
US Patent Application Publication 2009-0150941 of Steven Riedl et al. discloses an apparatus and method for video-on-demand playlist, wherein a method of providing programming content from a video server to a client coupled to the video server by a video content network includes the steps of sending, to the client, a playlist describing an interrelationship between at least one program segment and at least one related segment; sending, from the video server to the client over the video content network, video content comprising the at least one program segment and the at least one related segment; and modifying the playlist via communication to the client. The steps of sending the playlist, sending the content, and modifying the playlist are all accomplished within a single video-on-demand session per user.